Islamic group says Blair "legitimate target"

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Wednesday October 10, 09:13 AM Islamic group says Blair "legitimate target" Click to enlarge photo DUBAI (Reuters) - A radical Islamic group says Prime Minister Tony Blair has become a "legitimate target" for Muslims since Britain joined U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan.

Abdel-Rahman Saleem, spokesman for Islamic group al-Muhajiroun (the immigrants), was speaking on Wednesday to the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper from Lahore, Pakistan. The group describes itself as "the voice, the eyes, the ears of Muslims".

"Now, and after the British and American allies and probably the French have embarked on bombarding in Afghanistan, military installations and 10 Downing Street have become legitimate targets," Saleem was quoted as saying.

"He (Blair) has also become a legitimate target...This means that if any Muslim wanted to kill him or to get rid of him, I would not shed any tears," Saleem added.

His comments were reported as Blair started a visit to the Arabian Peninsula country of Oman, to meet British troops on exercises in the desert and shore up support for the U.S-led "war on terrorism", launched over the September 11 suicide attacks on the United States.

U.S. and British forces have been pounding targets in Afghanistan, where the prime suspect in the attacks, Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden, is hiding.

The U.S.-led strikes have sparked protests in some Muslim countries, where the action is seen as a war against Islam.

Ashaq al-Awsat also quoted Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, the London-based leader of Muhajiroun, as saying that under Islamic law, Blair was a legitimate target for Muslims living in Islamic states.

But Bakri stressed Muslims living in the West, including in Britain, were not in a state of war with anyone and were thus required to honour the laws of the countries they live in.

"From an Islamic legal point of view, if Blair entered a Muslim country, then he would become one of the legitimate targets because he had committed aggression against the land of the Muslims," Asharq al-Awsat quoted Bakri as saying.

Britain's Crown Prosecution Service last week said it was looking into Bakri's activities after he issued a fatwa, or religious edict, calling for the death of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf for backing Washington.

-- Anonymous, October 10, 2001


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